Turkey Not to Cut Off Trade Ties with Iran: Cavusoglu

Turkey will not cut off trade ties with Iran at the behest of other countries, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

News ID: 71003

Date: 30 June 2018 - 10:41

TEHRAN (Defapress) – “If the United States’ decisions are aimed at peace and stability, then we’ll support them, but we don’t have to follow every decision. Being allies doesn’t mean following every decision word for word,” Cavusoglu told broadcaster NTV in an interview.

Washington has told its allies to cut imports of Iranian oil by November, a senior State Department official said this week, as US President Donald Trump looks to cut off funding to Iran. Trump in May said his administration was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

“Iran is a good neighbor and we have economic ties. We are not going to cut off our trade ties with Iran because other countries told us so,” the Turkish minister added.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year said that Turkey was looking to raise the volume of its annual trade with Iran to $30 billion from $10 billion.

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